Yesterday I caught the train into Ikebukuro for the day to shop for a fluorescent desklamp, hot-water bottle and to visit Nekobukuro. Nekobukuro is on the 8th floor of Tokyu Hands Ikebukuro where apartment-dwelling people can go to visit and pet very large, sedate cats. I found it interesting and amusing that, in a country where cars, houses, dogs and often even poeple are on the small side, the cats were predominantly enormous, amongst the largest I have ever seen. Obviously Persian style ones looked larger than reality but certain short-haired cats, too, were nearly double the size of my feline domesticus in Sydney.
No wonder they don't live in apartments: there they would loom like tigers! Found a rare Thai buffet for lunch and the pictured hot-water bottle that is not filled with water but a fluid heated in the microwave, similar to that used in hand and ear-warmers for skiing, that is inserted into the cat's stomach for the night after which he is zipped up and re-dressed (as many Japanese animals are)! Pictured are the ingredients used to attempt to make buckwheat nuggets, fried and wrapped in seaweed with (soy + yuzu mirin) citrus, soy and vinegar dressing, after the style of Megumi's delicious welcome feast.
Yesterday I caught the train into Ikebukuro for the day to shop for a fluorescent desklamp, hot-water bottle and to visit Nekobukuro. Nekobukuro is on the 8th floor of Tokyu Hands Ikebukuro where apartment-dwelling people can go to visit and pet very large, sedate cats. I found it interesting and amusing that, in a country where cars, houses, dogs and often even poeple are on the small side, the cats were predominantly enormous, amongst the largest I have ever seen. Obviously Persian style ones looked larger than reality but certain short-haired cats, too, were nearly double the size of my feline domesticus in Sydney. 
No wonder they don't live in apartments: there they would loom like tigers! Found a rare Thai buffet for lunch and the pictured hot-water bottle that is not filled with water but a fluid heated in the microwave, similar to that used in hand and ear-warmers for skiing, that is inserted into the cat's stomach for the night after which he is zipped up and re-dressed (as many Japanese animals are)! Pictured are the ingredients used to attempt to make buckwheat nuggets, fried and wrapped in seaweed with (soy + yuzu mirin) citrus, soy and vinegar dressing, after the style of Megumi's delicious welcome feast.
